


Claustrophobia

by PhoenixFeather



Series: Phobias [2]
Category: Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-04
Updated: 2019-12-04
Packaged: 2021-02-25 23:40:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,537
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21673840
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PhoenixFeather/pseuds/PhoenixFeather
Summary: Peter wasn’t always afraid of small spaces. In all honesty, small spaces didn’t really bother him if there was a way out of the space. He wasn’t bothered that much by the vents at Alchemax because he knew he’d be able to leave. When the door to the closet refused to open, he was definitely bothered by it, especially since there weren’t any vents and the door had apparently been “Spider-Man proofed”.
Series: Phobias [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1562455
Kudos: 49





	Claustrophobia

Peter’s night had been going just fine. He had stopped a several muggings and made sure that the bus that had been barreling down the streets didn’t slam into the kid that had chased his skateboard into oncoming traffic. All in all, a fairly easy night. Well, that was until Peter got tipped off to a potential city-wide threat. Just when he thought he’d be able to turn in early. He quickly made his way across the city to the company in question. In the back of his mind, he was hoping that the tip was wrong.

Once he reached the building, he made his way through the vents, letting his spider sense lead him. Based on the buzzing he was feeling, the tip was correct. Now he needed to find out where things were going on. He didn’t get too far into the building when the buzzing increased greatly. Before he could react, something had pulled him through the vents and down into a large lab area. He hit the ground hard. Peter sprung up quickly, not wanting this to go even more downhill. His head was buzzing again, and he jumped to the side out of instinct, but unable to see what was coming. His stomach dropped. It looked to Peter as though he would have to be fighting something or someone invisible.

“Hello? Anybody there?” Peter called out, hoping to get the attacker to speak. He was met with silence. “So you’re not much of a talker, huh. That’s fine. I can talk for the both of us.”

He continued to dodge whatever was swinging at him. The longer he ‘fought’ the closer he got to the wall of the building. He wasn’t liking where this fight was going. He didn’t like the fact that he was starting to get cornered. Peter dodged once more, but while he was in the middle of the dodge, his spider sense went off again, warning him that the thing was attacking again. He couldn’t move in time, and as a result, he was flung through a doorway and hit a wall. He let out a groan before calling out to the thing.

“For not having visible limbs, you sure can pack a p-”

Before he could finish his sentence, the door slammed shut, effectively locking him in the dark room.

“Wow, how rude. I try to have a nice and civil conversation and this is how I’m treated.”

Peter sighed before making his way to the door. At first, he simply tried the doorknob and wasn’t surprised when it refused to move. His next move was to try and open the door forcefully. He took a deep breath before slamming his shoulder into the door. Unfortunately for him, the door still refused to open. He let out a grumble. This was NOT how he wanted to spend his night. He tried several more times to bust the door down. Each attempt failed, leaving Peter with a sore shoulder and a sour mood.

“Okay, so the door won’t budge. No big deal, I can just crawl out a vent.”

Even in the dark Peter was able to make out the walls of the room just fine. After a quick glance around, he realized this was less of a room and more of a closet. When he had initially been tossed into the space, he hadn’t realized how small it was. He took a deep breath in order to swallow some of his panic. He refocused and scanned the closet again, thinking he missed the vent last time. When he once again didn’t spot the metal rectangle, he had a harder time keeping from panicking.

“So, no vent. This is fine. I-I’m fine,” he said, trying to calm himself down. “Come on Parker, you got this. Think.”

His words didn’t work. The longer he stood in the space, the faster his heart began to beat. He tried the door again, hoping that he would somehow be able to break the thing down. That was not the case. After another 30 minutes, the panic began to fully set in. Peter wrapped his arms around his body and forced his eyes closed. He wondered why he even listened to that tip. He wouldn’t be in this situation if he had just gone home. Suddenly, his goober began to beep. His eyes shot open.

“Oh, no no nononono!” He shouted.

He tried desperately to open the chat window on the goober. Unfortunately, he was unable to get the window open before several portals opened up. Soon, the tiny closet was inhabited by all the spiders, forcing Peter up against a wall. The first of the group to speak was Gwen.

“Dude, where are we?”

“C-closet,” Peter choked out.

The others were looking at Peter with questioning looks on their faces. They weren’t expecting the old man to sound so shaken up.

“Are you alright man?” Miles asked, reaching out to Peter B.

“Y-yeah, totally fine,” he whispered, his voice becoming strained towards the end of the sentence.

“You don’t sound fine,” Peni commented.

B let out a strangled noise as he slid down the wall. He was definitely NOT fine. This room was far too small, and there were far too many people stuffed into it. He needed space, but he was unable to convey that to the others since his stupid voice refused to work. His solution at this point was to try and curl up into a ball to get away. All he could think about at this point was the incident.

He was just a teenager, not even 18. He had been Spider-Man for just a short time, loving what he was doing. He had been attempting to stop a bombing that he had found out about when things took a turn for the worst. The men who were behind the stunt had known he would be there. Peter didn’t understand how they could have possibly known that he would show up. He hadn’t told anyone about what he knew, yet they somehow knew he would be there. They had tricked him. They got him in a spot where he wasn’t able to dodge their attacks, and before he knew it, the ceiling was suddenly where the ground had been.

He hadn’t expected the pain to be so intense. Granted, he should have known that having an entire three story building collapse on you would hurt, but knowing it would hurt and actually feeling the pain were two very different things. He screamed, and screamed, and screamed. The dust from the building made it hard for him to breathe. Each time he tried to suck air into his lungs, the concrete powder found its way into his mouth and choked him, forcing him to cough and gag. At some point, he noticed that his mouth had a metallic taste, but he didn’t understand why. He couldn’t really focus on a lot of things at that point. He did know that at some point, he began crying, tears flowing through the dust that had settled on his face, creating a thick paste that slid down his cheeks.

He tried his hardest to move and get free, but his left leg and arm were trapped in a way that made it almost impossible for him to move. After figuring out that moving was probably not going to happen, he let out a strangled sob. The thought of dying began to run through his mind. He didn’t want to die. He was just a kid with his whole life ahead of him. What would happen to May? She had already lost so much, and Peter didn’t want to know what she would do if she lost him too, so he tried again to lift the building and escape. As he pushed up, he could feel the materials above him shift and press down hard on his leg and arm, causing him to cry out in pain. The more he pushed, the more pain he felt. He gave one final push up, which caused the material to give a sharp downward press. Peter screamed when he felt the bone in his arm snap, but he continued upwards, using his other arm to throw out a web once he had a clear shot outside of the rubble. He tugged hard, ripping himself from the ruins of the building and into the cold air. He hit the ground hard, but he barely felt anything. All he could focus on was the pain in his arm, but even then, everything was growing numb. It wasn’t long before his body went limp and his vision faded to black.

Peter was pulled out of his thoughts by shouting.

“Peter! Peter please tell us what’s wrong.”

The voice was familiar, but the older spider couldn’t place the voice. What he did know was that it was young and full of fear. Something in him broke at the tone they used, so he pushed down his panic as much as he could and gave them the best answer he could think of.

“Room...small,” he wheezed, pausing between words to take a deep breath.

His head was buzzing as if he was in danger.

“Okay, hold on, we’re going to get you out of here, just hang in there Peter,” the voice replied, their voice still holding a hint of fear while also trying to remain calm.

Peter didn’t respond, unable to make any sound at this point. His body wasn’t working, everything going haywire. His spider sense was screaming danger. He almost attacked the person that gently grabbed his arms, but fought the urge as he was ushered through a portal. The first thing Peter noticed once he was in the new setting was that it was very bright. After being in the dark room for so long, the lights of this room almost seemed to blind him. He didn’t have time to adjust to the light as he was led to a couch and forced to sit down.

Once he was seated, Peter’s mask was removed. He flinched a bit at the motion, but allowed it to happen. He closed his eyes again and leaned his head back, taking deep breaths. He could vaguely hear other voices speaking to him and encouraging him in his breathing. After what felt like an eternity, his heart finally calmed down and his lungs were able to take in a decent amount of air. He swallowed thickly before opening his eyes.

His first instinct was to take in his surroundings. He was sitting on a floral couch, in a brightly colored room. With a quick glance around the room, he knew immediately that he was at May’s house. Once he knew where he was, he looked at who was there with him. On the couch to his left was Miles, while Gwen occupied the space to his right. Peni, Noir, and Ham stood opposite the couch. All of them were watching the elder spider with a worried look. Finally, Peter spoke.

“Thanks,” he stated simply.

“How are you doing?” Gwen asked gently, not wanting to cause another panic.

“I’m alright now,” Peter replied.

“Sooo, what happened back there?”

Peter flinched a bit. He had been hoping that they wouldn’t ask him that question. He wasn’t ready to explain his fear to them, but he knew he should probably let them know. He hummed before giving his answer.

“I don’t like small spaces.”

Miles made a face.

“I don’t understand. You say you don’t like small spaces but you were fine crawling through the vents at Alchemax,” Miles said, in an almost accusing tone.

“I didn’t particularly like crawling through the vents,” Peter began, getting confused looks from the others. “I can crawl through the vents because I know there’s a way out. I have the power to leave the vents, and it makes me not panic that much.”

“So why didn’t you just crawl out of that closet?”

“No vents,” Peter replied simply.

“Okay, so you could have just left through the door.”

“Door wouldn’t budge. And yes, I did try to break it down.”

The others nodded at his explanation. He hoped that they would just accept his fear without pressing any more, but they were not. May decided to jump into the conversation at that point.

“If you don’t mind me asking, why does it matter if you have the power to leave the space or not?”

Peter sucked in a breath, feeling as though he had been punched in the gut. The memories came rushing back, and he had to force his panic down as he looked from one spider to the next, and finally landing his gaze on May. He swallowed thickly before taking a deep breath and giving his explanation.

“It matters,” he started in a strained voice, “because last time I got stuck, bad things happened.”

He really didn’t want to explain any further, but he knew the others would need more of an explanation that what he gave them. Every single one of them was looking at him expecting more.

“When I was around 17, I got a tip about a potential bombing. So being the young hero I was, I followed it and found myself face to face with this guy. What I didn’t know was that him and his minions knew I would show up.” His voice wavered a bit as he remembered the event. “So I try to stop them, but things went very wrong. Long story short, I ended up buried beneath the rubble of a three story building.”

He rushed out the ending, not wanting to think about it much. The others all had shocked faces, not expecting the old hero to tell them about his traumatic experience. Peni was the first to break the silence, launching herself at Peter as she cried.

“Oh my gosh, that must have been so scary! I’m so glad you got out!”

“Yeah, me too,” Peter replied with a grunt, the weight of the girl knocking the air out of him.

“Speaking if you getting out,” Noir began, “how’d you manage to escape?”

“I, uh,” Peter stuttered “I pushed the building off.”

“What?!” Ham exclaimed, voicing what the others were thinking. “How in the world did you lift a three story building off of yourself?”

“I don’t really know. Maybe it was like those stories of the moms who lift cars to get their kids. I do know that I broke my arm while getting out.”

He was met with looks of shock and fear. He shrugged and refused to look at any of them. They sat in silence for a bit before he suddenly felt more arms around him. He turned to look and found Miles clinging to his side. Soon, Gwen was glued to his other side. Then May joined the hug, followed by Ham, and finally Noir. Peter hugged them all back. They stayed like that for a while, all of them thankful that they had found each other, Peter most of all. He was glad that he finally had people who were there for him when he needed it most.


End file.
